The Meaning of the Relatioship Between Bale Nyungcung Roof and Inner Room in Architectural Design of Mosques at Sunda Tatar a Ca
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Contents available at: www.repository.unwira.ac.id https://journal.unwira.ac.id/index.php/ARTEKS Research paper doi: 10.30822/arteks.v6i1.538 The meaning of the relatioship between bale nyungcung roof and inner room in architectural design of Mosques at Sunda Tatar A case study of Majalaya, Manonjaya, and Banten Great Mosques Roza Rahmadjasa Mintaredja, Purnama Salura* , Bachtiar Fauzy Architecture Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Katolik Parahyangan Jl. Ciumbuleuit no. 94, Bandung, Indonesia ARTICLE INFO ABSTRACT Article history: There has been a decline in the form and function of Sundanese Received May 19, 2020 vernacular architecture for large buildings due to the absence of Received in revised form June 26, 2020 artifacts in village houses. The data on palace or keraton and Accepted October 11, 2020 terraced roofs are only found in lontar and from outside observers Available online April 01, 2021 in the XVI century. Meanwhile, the phenomenon of the bale Keywords: nyungcung roof emerged on the mosque in the XVI-XIX centuries at Bale nyungcung West Java after disappearing for more or less two centuries. The Inner room reappearance makes it interesting to study this concept, especially Meaning relationship with the focus on its relationship with the inner room of the mosque. Mosque This research was conducted on the Great Mosque spread in Sunda Sundanese architecture Tatar such as the West Java and Banten Provinces with buildings of Majalaya, Manonjaya, and Banten used as case studies. It was conducted qualitatively and interpretatively using the building anatomical theory to analyze the scope of shape and the bale nyungcung roof. The results showed the relationship between the *Corresponding author: Purnama Salura roof and the inner space is a reflection of the adjustment in the Architecture Study Program, Faculty of Engineering, Universitas Katolik mosque's basic reference with the Bale Nyungcung roof used as one Parahyangan, Indonesia of the Sundanese local building features. Email: [email protected] ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3652- 7192 Introduction modern architecture which are considered to be completely uniform (Broadbent 1987; Jencks The difference between humans and other living 1997; Bonta 1979; Salura 2015). There have been things is their ability to give meaning to life. The attempts by several academics to reexamine the term ‘homo sapiens’ means wise creatures and it essence of architecture through the vernacular shows human does not only act on sensory architecture diversity which was considered very perception but also capable of interpreting and interesting because several buildings are built in abstracting the perception (Danesi 2007; Harari locations with similar climates. Their findings 2014). This unique ability enables humans to showed vernacular architecture or culture is create a culture which distinguishes them from precisely the main factor influencing the shape of animals (Hurford 2007; Pinker 2018) and this also buildings while technology only plays a means all aspect of their lives are attached to supporting role (Rapoport 1969; 2005). This meanings. further confirms the importance of meaning in Architects experts and academics started to architectural form. note the importance of the aspects of meaning in Religion has been posited as the channel architecture in order to overcome the failures of humans interpret transcendent realities outside Copyright ©2021 Roza Rahmadjasa Mintaredja, Purnama Salura, Bachtiar Fauzy. This is an open access article distributed the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License 25 ARTEKS : Jurnal Teknik Arsitektur, Volume 6 Issue 1, April 2021 pISSN 2541-0598; eISSN 2541-1217 their scope (Eliade 2013). This means the comprehensively to ease the search for the shape meaning aspect is also inherent in the and material in the roof and inner room. architectural designs of their worship centers as a The second step involved using the Sundanese means of supporting religion. These explanations, cosmology theory (Budimansyah 2019; therefore, show it is interesting to discourse Kurniawan 2014; Nurwansyah 2013) and mosque architecture due to its diverse shapes in exploring the architectural meaning contained in each country and variations from other religious the shape and material of the roof and room in the buildings (Paramitha and Salura 2020). case study (Salura 2007; Salura and Fauzy 2012). According to historical records, the Walisanga did The third step was linking all anatomical not merely "import" mosque architectural form in analysis by relating the meaning of the bale the Arabian Peninsula but also adapted it to the nyungcung roof with the shape of the inner room local community at the beginning of its presence in each case study. in Indonesia (Ashadi 2012). Their hallmark is The case study was selected based on certain usually highlighted through the tiled roofs criteria with the first being the fact that the commonly known as overlapping roofs and also mosque architecture uses a bale nyungcung roof, as bale nyungcung in Tatar Sunda. second, is the oldest, historic, and classified as a Research has been conducted to conservation building, third, the capacity is comprehensively review Sundanese culture, relatively equal, and fourth, still functioning especially from the anthropological perspective properly. (Rosidi 2010; Lubis 2000). Unfortunately, none Those found to have satisfied these has discussed the meaning of bale nyungcung requirements are (1) Majalaya (2) Manonjaya, despite its important historical value and its use in and (3) Banten Great Mosques as shown in figure the interior of the oldest vernacular mosques in 1. Sunda Tatar. Moreover, there are also very rare academic publications conducted to comprehensively examine Sundanese vernacular architecture, especially as a worship building. This research was conducted to fill this research gap by exploring and uncovering all the meaning relationships between the bale nyungcung roof and the inner room shape in the architectural design of the mosque. Based on these objectives, this study is expected to be beneficial to architectural scholarship by providing input with the ability to academically explain this relationship. It also enriches the rare Sundanese architecture concept and serves as an inspiration for further and detailed research on Sundanese architecture. Majalaya Great Mosque Method The research steps are written sequentially although, in reality, they are not always linear according to the writing. It is also possible to run the analysis steps simultaneously. The first step was to record all the case studies followed by redrawing the whole to examine the building carefully. The results were analyzed based on theoretical anatomy (Salura 2018) to classify the parts of the building anatomically and 26 Roza Rahmadjasa Mintaredja, Purnama Salura, Bachtiar Fauzy: The meaning of the relatioship between bale nyungcung roof and inner room in architectural design of Mosques at Sunda Tatar mosque’s basic form in general as shown in figure 2. Moreover, the prayer room is oriented towards the Qibla and emphasized by the axis formed by the main entrance with the mihrab room which symmetrically divides the plan. The floor is in the form of cement pavement with a ceramic finish and covered with carpet to provide a warm impression in the room. Furthermore, the main room enclosure walls have considerable large window holes indicating its connectivity with the additional room on its three sides. The main columns supporting the contrast roof are visible in the main room, and their presence rather disturbs the pilgrims' view towards the pulpit position. Qibla Manonjaya Great Mosque Banten Great Mosque Figure 1. Three Mosques in the case study Figure 2. Floor plan of Majalaya Grand Mosque The structure and construction of the roof, exposed as aesthetic elements in the inner room of the Mosque Result and discussion The first case study was analyzed using architectural anatomy theory with a focus only on the aspects relating to the scope of the form. This involved a comprehensive analysis of each element in the building scope to fit the research focus. This was followed by elucidating the meaning of the bale nyuncung roof and its relation to the meaning of the inner room. The hole in the upper part of the bale nyungcung roof Majalaya Great Mosque transmits light to the main hall of the Mosque The main interior of the Majalaya mosque has Figure 3. The lower room on the bale nyungcung roof a square shape with an additive linear room on the which blends with the main room to create a vertical North, South, and East sides functioning as an room which provides sacred meaning to the main room additional area when the main room is full. The of the Mosque square shape refers to the typology of the 27 ARTEKS : Jurnal Teknik Arsitektur, Volume 6 Issue 1, April 2021 pISSN 2541-0598; eISSN 2541-1217 At the top, the vertical room radiates reflected Divinity/Keilahian light gently into the main hall of the Mosque to create a very strong sacred atmosphere in the Mosque. This, therefore, strengthens the divinity (Illahi) meaning which reflects the human relationship with its creator as shown in figure 4. Divinity/Keilahian Human relations Figure 5. Front view of the Majalaya Grand Mosque Vertical axis Buana nyungcung Buana panca tengah Buana larang Figure 4. Section of the Majalaya Grand Mosque building The outside view of the mosque shows the roof proportion is very dominant against the wall with three stacks separated by a wall and provided with a light hole as indicated in figure 5. The Figure 6. Decomposed isometry of the bale nyungcung roof in the Majalaya Great Mosque incoming light is reflected to gently illuminate the entire main hall and provide a sacred meaning to Manonjaya Great Mosque the room. The Mosque is generally dominated by It is also in the basic form of a square plan with vertical elements and this indicates the message the North, South, and East sides surrounded by being delivered leads to divinity (Illahi).